Her Rugged Rancher. Stella Bagwell

and her voice quaver. “I’ve been wanting to do that ever since I laid eyes on you, too. Does that make me stupid, too?”

      A tight grimace twisted his features. “No. It makes you a liar.”

      Bella stepped in front of him and stabbed him with an angry look. “You can call me bold or forward or unladylike, but don’t call me a liar. That’s one thing I’m not.”

      “Then you must be a hypocrite. Jett says you had a crush on your old boss—that you still do. He’s the one you’ve had ideas about kissing. Not me!”

      Doing her best to hang on to her temper, she said, “Jett doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I never had a crush on Curtis. Not while I worked as a paralegal in his law office or after I left it. I admired him for many reasons and even thought he’d make a good husband—but I could see he wasn’t meant for me.”

      Bella couldn’t go on to explain that being around Curtis had never filled her head with erotic images. She’d never pictured herself making wild, passionate love to the man, the way she had with Noah. But those secret fantasies were far too intimate to share with this man.

      Shaking his head, he glanced toward Casper, and Bella followed the direction of his attention. Thankfully the horse had been trained not to run away. At the moment he was happily tearing at the tufts of grass growing in scattered patches over the rocky ground.

      “Forget I mentioned anything about the man,” Noah muttered gruffly. “Who you have your eye set on is none of my business. Unless you try to make me your target. So before you make your play, you need to know that I’m not about to let anything develop between us. Not now. Not ever.”

      Bella proudly lifted her chin. “Then why did you kiss me?”

      “That was my way of explaining the situation.”

      She refrained from rolling her eyes toward the treetops. “It sure didn’t feel like a demonstration, explanation, or anything of the sort. It felt like an old-fashioned kiss—the kind two people with mutual attraction share. And if you could be totally honest with me, you’d admit that you want to do it again. I do.”

      His jaws clamped so tight Bella figured his back teeth were probably in danger of crumbling beneath the pressure.

      Turning his gaze back to her, he said, “Bella, I’m sorry, but I don’t have the luxury of playing games with the opposite sex. Especially when the games could become dangerous.”

      “I would’ve never guessed you could be such an ass, Noah Crawford,” she said in a low, angry voice. “But I should’ve known. It’s no wonder you live such a solitary life. There’s no one around here worthy of your presence!”

      With tears threatening to fall, she hurried over to Casper and swung herself into the saddle. Yet before she could kick the horse into a gallop, Noah was there, reaching up and dragging her out of the saddle.

      Bella practically fell into his arms and she was forced to grab hold of his shoulders to keep from sliding down the front of his body.

      She gasped with shock. “Noah! What—are you—doing?”

      “I’m doing what both of us want!”

      The words came out on a fierce growl and then he was kissing her again. Only this time the meeting of their mouths instantly turned into a frenetic search that lasted so long Bella was certain she was going to faint.

      The rushing noise in her ears grew so loud she couldn’t hear the wind or the birds or even the moans in her own throat. Then, just as her knees were about to buckle, he lifted his head, allowing her to suck in a reviving breath of oxygen. Yet before she could gather herself completely, he stepped back, removing the anchoring support of his shoulders.

      Forced to grab on to the fender of Casper’s saddle to keep from falling, she stared in shocked wonder at him.

      “Noah, I—”

      “Don’t say anything else, Bella,” he said in a husky growl. “Just go home. Before I say to hell with everything and carry you inside the cabin.”

      Shaking almost violently now, she followed his order and quickly swung herself onto Casper’s back. The horse instantly sensed her turmoil and began to dance and shake his head against the bit. Without sparing a glance at Noah, she urged the animal into a gallop and didn’t ease the pace until she was long gone from the cowboy’s view.